Thursday, January 11, 2007

Classless Acts of the 2006 Season

Some of this is funny, some of this is disturbing. But generally this behavior is degrading to the game. We present you the most classless acts of the 2006 season. Once again, we've opened it to voting. You get only one vote, so give it some thought. We have several outstanding entries.

Situation: Nevada Las Vegas trails Iowa State, 16-10, with seven seconds remaining in a Sept. 9 game at Ames. With the Rebels at the Cyclone 11, quarterback Shane Steichen throws a pass into a gaggle of players at the back of the end zone. As time expires, Nevada Las Vegas' Aaron Straiten emerges holding the ball. The officials rule that Straiten was out of bounds when he caught the pass.

Classless Act: In protest, Nevada Las Vegas coach Mike Sanford keeps his team on the field for 15 minutes, hoping to force officials to review the play. It turns out the play was reviewed and the call stood, but word didn't reach Sanford until long after his tirade. Cyclone fans begin chanting "Let's go home" to the Rebel players, who were more than eager to respond to the chants. Eventually, the Rebels leave the field, but the players had to be escorted to the team bus by police to shield them from the angry Cyclone mob.

2. Glen Mason, MinnesotaSituation: Temple, losers of 15 in a row and one of the worst teams in Division I-A, comes rolling into Minneapolis to play Minnesota on Sept. 16.

Classless Act: Golden Gopher coach Glen Mason, with his team clinging to a 59-0 lead with 3:50 remaining, sends out kicker Jason Giannini to try a 41-yard field goal. The kick is good and Minnesota holds on for a 62-0 victory.

3. Gary Barnett, formerly of ColoradoSituation: Colorado's 0-2 start under new coach Dan Hawkins includes arguably the lowest-point in team history: a 19-10 loss to I-AA Montana State in the first meeting between the teams since 1927. To make matters worse, the Bobcats lose their next game to Division II Chadron State, 35-24.

Classless Act: Gary Barnett, the man Hawkins replaced, could not keep his mouth shut. This despite a $3 million settlement from the university that ended his turbulent tenure. "Those are my guys. I know the talent that we have there, the maturity and the leadership, and I want those guys to get everything they deserve, and I want them to play in the [Big 12] championship game again. Then, on the other side, I got taken out of that situation. I got removed from it and someone else made that decision. Part of me felt a little vindication because of it."

4. Oklahoma Sooners

Situation: Oklahoma travels to Oregon for a Sept. 16 game. Everything is going according to plan for the Sooners until the final 66 seconds, when an onside kick and a questionable pass interference call lead to a 34-33 loss to the Ducks. The ugly and unfortunate ending altered the course of Oklahoma's season.

Classless Acts: Fans — presumably Sooner fans — threaten the life of replay official Gordon Riese. Equally disturbing: Oklahoma president David Boren asks that the game be stricken from the records. The key word here is game, as this is only a game. ...

5. North Carolina State fansSituation: North Carolina State plays host to Boston College on Sept. 23. The Wolfpack stun the No. 20 Eagles, 17-15, one of the few bright moments in a 3-9 season.

Classless Acts: The victory over the Eagles turns into a Golden Shower for some. Reports trickle out of people urinating in the stands. "I know people were urinating in their sections," student body president Will Quick said. "I have heard reports of individuals being splashed by urine."

6. Brigham YoungSituation: Brigham Young and Utah State meet for the first time since 2002 on Sept. 23 in Provo. Tensions were high. Four personal fouls were called and there was pushing and shoving at the Utah State bench after Brigham Young running back Fui Vakapuna was knocked out of bounds early in the fourth quarter. Photo by Dan Roden.

Classless Act: Brigham Young decides to pour it on, with starting quarterback Jason Beck continuing to throw the ball and completing an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jonny Harline with 2:16 left to complete a 38-0 Cougar victory.

7. Illinois

Situation: Illinois, which had lost 24 of 25 Big Ten Conference games, traveled to East Lansing on Sept. 30 to play Michigan State, which was coming off a disastrous 40-37 loss at home to Notre Dame. Nonetheless, the Spartans are a 26-point favorites. So what happens? Illinois wins, 23-20.

Classless Act: Illinois players, in a practice that has been banned by the Big Ten, tried to plant the Fighting Illini flag at midfield after the game. This did not go over well with Michigan State players, many of the same players who a year earlier planted the Spartan flag at midfield at Notre Dame after a victory.

8. Steve SpurrierSituation: South Carolina builds leads of 17-0 and 24-10 in an Oct. 7 game against Kentucky at Lexington, then holds on for a 24-17 victory. The Gamecocks' pass defense is shaky down the stretch, and the Wildcats have a shot to tie the score with a Hail Mary on the final play.

Classless Act: Gamecock coach Steve Spurrier blames the late defensive breakdowns on secondary coach Ron Cooper, and Cooper is summoned to the press conference and is interrogated by Spurrier. "Coach Cooper, they want to know what coverage we were in on that 62-yarder. Three deep?" An uncomfortable Cooper responded, "Three deep. Had the bust by the left corner and the left nickel." ... Spurrier later apologized.

9. Miami, Florida International and Lamar Thomas

Situation: Florida International and Miami square off in the "City Line Series" Oct. 14 at the Orange Bowl. It was a forgettable game (Miami won, 35-0) except for the brawl that erupted in the third quarter, when the benches emptied and the players went at it for nearly five minutes. Thirty-one players were suspended.

Classless Acts: Besides the actions of FIU and Miami, former Hurricane receiver Lamar Thomas, working as a commentator on the telecast, loses his job after a series of comments lauding the melee. "That's what I'm talking about," Thomas said.

10. Mike Leach, Texas TechSituation: As they say, it's garbage time. Texas Tech is leading Baylor, 55-21, with 2:05 left in a Nov. 4 game at Lubbock. Ernest Smith, a freshman receiver for the Bears, appears to fumble after catching a 15-yard pass from Blake Szymanski. The officials rule that Smith was down when he hit the turf.

Classless Act: Red Raider coach Mike Leach, with his team clinging to a 34-point lead, decides to challenge the call. The call is overturned and Texas Tech takes over. Baylor coach Guy Morriss says afterward, "If the day ever comes, we're going to try to hang 75 on them, I'll guarantee you that."

11. Steve Levy, CaliforniaSituation: California is about to complete a 10-3 season with a convincing victory over Texas A&M in the Dec. 28 Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The Golden Bears lead, 38-10, with less than a minute remaining.

Classless Act: California quarterback Steve Levy ignores a call by coach Jeff Tedford to take a knee and decides to run an off-tackle play, handing the ball to Bryan Schutte, who scores a touchdown from three yards out with 28 seconds remaining to make the final score 45-10. Tedford grabs Levy by the facemask when the quarterback returns to the sideline. It wasn't the first time Levy, a senior, was in trouble with Tedford. He was suspended in the offseason after he was arrested for involvement in a bar brawl in San Francisco and was reinstated just before fall practice started.

In closing, we would like to thank members of our trusted network that helped put this list together. And if you're new to the site, check out the rest of our humble blog by clicking here. And if you missed it, check out our posting on Cheapest Shots of the Year.

You know how the Karma boomerang could hit that dipshit Mason any harder? If he died of gingevitis. That would brighten my day immensly, especially if it happened before he spent his 3.6 million in buyouts that Temple,Louisiana Lafayette and Monroe, and Directional State Tech got for him.

No nomination for the Wisconsin player who twisted Michigan's Steve Breaston's leg.... AND what about the WVU fan that took a dump on the band's seats (http://mb25.scout.com/fthehivefrm1.showMessageRange?topicID=65970.topic&start=1&stop=20)... that's the winner.

For the record, I was in the box for the Texas Tech/Baylor game and the review was an official review. It was initially labeled a coaches challenge by the Press Box PA guy but he later corrected himself, saying that it was actually an official review.

Are you kidding? Nominating Steve Levy as classless? Football is a tough game, and if you get your feelings hurt easily, then I'd recommend not playing. Both Cal and Texas A&M lined up for the play in their regular offensive and defensive formations, expecting Cal to run the ball. If A&M couldn't keep Cal from scoring on a vanilla hand-off to a 4th string tailback, then that's not classless, that's a lack of heart and effort at the end of a game. I don't know if you ever played football, but the mantra of every coach at every level is to finish the game. Laying down with a minute left and your opponent inside your 10 yard line is not finishing the game...Nominating Levy for this was classless on your part, and it's apparent that you don't know the first thing about football...

You've got to be out of your mind nominating Levy. I was at the game. The play in question was a plodding run between the tackles. The Aggies laid down like dogs and let the Cal back practically walk into the end zone. I think Tedford should've been more embarassed for his opponents' lack of heart than anything Levy did.

I don't get why #1 was "classless". If Sanford didn't know that the play had already been reviewed, what was wrong with trying to force a review when the game was on the line? If there had been no review and his protest forced one, and they found that his guy was inbounds, then he would have been justified. So how was it classless?

It was a tough choice between Miami-FIU and Spurrier, but I chose Spurrier.

My reasoning was this: Was ANYONE really shocked at the Miami brawl? I mean, come on. While it was hands-down an incredibly classless act, it was just Miami (and, granted FIU) doing what they do best, act like thugs.

I don't know much about Spurrier, but it shocked the hell out of me to see him call out a member of his staff like that. I read afterwards that this is pretty much par for the course for a guy like Spurrier, but I thought that was the most classless act of the year/

It's amazing how easily one can come to broad conclusions without knowing the full details. In the Cal - Texas A&M game, Coach Tedford instructed Levy to take a knee. While in the huddle, Levy's teammates implored him to call a simple run-up-the-middle play to give seldom used walkon (and white) running back Bryan Shutte a chance at a touchdown on national TV. Levy's decision was about giving a hard-working practice player a chance to shine, not about sticking it to A&M. If Tedford hadn't reacted so strongly, then no one would have said a word. However, Levy recognized that at worst he would become the scape goat. As a senior in his last game, that sacrifice was worth giving his teammate a chance in the spotlight. With that said, the Miami-FIU brawl is unquestionably the most classless act in recent college football history.

as a cal fan, i was embarrassed. take the W and finish on a good note. running a play at the goalline up by four TDs with under a minute is poor sportsmanship. don't give two shits if the A&M D layed down, but Cal/Levy had no business running a play there. it tainted a good win for the Bears.

1. Jason Beck was not the starting QB. He did start that game because our starting QB John Beck was injured.2. We only had 2 QBs available on the roster. All other QBs were red-shirting. We weren't going to ruin a redshirt season for Utah State.3. Everyone smoked Utah State this year. They lost to a I-AA team too. 4. There were personal fouls because it was an in-state game that was out of reach. Tensions get high then. It was a cheap-shot by them that started some shoving. There wasn't any fighting and the shoving ended very quickly.

It wasnt classless for Wisconsin's coach to do that. That was just pure brilliancy.

The QB for Cal should have took a knee. You dont have a freakin clue what he was thinking about in the huddle. The fact is he should have listened to his coach(THE ONE WHO IS IN CHARGE and could have his butt sit the bench). He didnt do that and that makes his case, classless.

I fail to see how Oklahoma ranks with these others. It wasn't just Oklahoma and their fans that had a problem w/ this call. The game announcers and the media in general thought that it was one of the worst calls all season. It DID change the outcome of the game. People in the media talked about it for the rest of the season. And does it matter that the replay official later admitted that he knew OU recovered the ball but neglected to tell the officials that fact even when asked?

I need to defend NCSU a little bit. I'm certainly not endorsing urinating in the stands, but the post did NOT include the entire story. There have been problems with the ticket system there (you print out your own ticket - so many people are making photocopies and letting all their friends into the bottom sections). Due to overcrowding, security at the game started telling people that if they left their section, they wouldn't be allowed back in. Since people knew they'd lose their seats if they went to the bathroom, they went in the stands.

Again, not something I would do, not something I'm proud of as an alumnus of NC State, but let's give all the information, thank you.

In Fran's first season at A&M, OU was up 77-0. Stoops ordered his players to take a knee inside the 10 with tons of time left. On the 4th down knee an A&M player flew in there to make a tackle on a player taking a knee. The bad part about it was the player celebrated. So what if Cal scored with little time left on the clock, it was a simple run play and A&M didnt stop it. Its not like A&M hasnt done anything like that before. If you want to talk about Karma, talk about Fran's bad luck since he bailed on Bama the way he did.

To the idiots saying OU shouldn't be on there because they got hosed by the call, why don't you re-read the thing. The classless act was the losers that threatened Gordon Reise's life and the letter Boren wrote to try to get the game stricken from the record books. Threatening a man's life and essentially causing him to go into hiding over the outcome of a football game deserves to be #1 on this list.

Cal scoring on A&M is just the karma train pulling into their station.

Wisconsin/PSU wasn't classless. Penn State was not going to drive the length of the field with that little time left in the half. If it had been the end of the game, maybe. I thought the Badger coach was just exposing a loophole in the rules that needs to be fixed.

Any time Gary Barnett opens his mouth the is a classless moment in the making.

OKlahoma shouldn't be on this. You say "Fans — presumably Sooner fans — threaten the life of replay official Gordon Riese". He lied about the calls that were shown to be different on national TV. One has to wonder if the threats are is fabricated to take someone of the heat of him and the PAC-10.

And for the jerk above, did you ever think he went "into hiding over the outcome of a football game" because he was exposed as a lair on national TV?

I've never seen anything so unprofessional and immature as that clip of Mike Sanford and UNLV ranting and provoking the crowd after losing their football game. It is bad enough having players with horrible sportsmanship- but having a head coach acting with such disrespect is truly unbelievable!

While I think it's fairly clear cut that Miami-FIU-Lamar Thomas takes the crown, I would at least like to get Dwayne Jarrett's Rose Bowl performance on the list of nominees. Jump shot after TD, waving to D-back, handing the ball to a Michigan player on the ground after a catch and the pat-down - none of which went flagged. Way to go USC and refs!

You should look at the late hit Kellen Heard of Texas A&M put on Colt McCoy from Texas in the Texas / Texas A&M game this year. Clearly hit McCoy in the head after the play was over (McCoy threw an INT) and McCoy was taking his helmet off when he was hit.

Hey dumb ass! BYU's starting quarter back is JOHN beck. JASON Beck IS the BACKUP quarterback. So BYU did nothing wrong. Thier starter was out. Now you owe BYU a HUGE apology. How about putting Mike Belotti and his classless statemenst about BYU before and after Oregon got thier asses handed to them in the Las Vegas bowl? Now that's classless. Idiot!

FYI, Jason was almost always put in during the last quarter when BYU was clearly winning. If you watched BYU during the season you would have known that. You are out of line to single them out for one game where they beat a team by a large margin. Whether Jason Beck started that game or not, he is still the backup quarterback. Why should they have to put in a 3rd or 4th string guy just because they were winning. Your reaching for some thing that's not there. I can name you several teams in history that have been notorious for running up scores; Miami, FL State, OK ECT. Why are you picking on a team that is coming off 3 horrible losing seasons. Here is a link to BYU'S schedules,A look at some of the run ups they had done to them. Are any of those teams on your classless list? And quite frankley, to call a school like BYU classless in anything is rediculous. BYU is one of the biggest class acts in the NCAA. You must be one of those Mid Major haters. Too bad for you BYU is on thier way back up. Future BSC buster? Umm???

OK, I thought good writers did research. The person who wrote this is an idiot and did zero research on the BYU Utah State game. For example, John Beck, the starting QB for BYU, was out of the USU game with two bad ankles. BYU was in a bind and only had one QB available to play in Jason Beck. The only other QB was Jason Bower, a redshirt freshman. So tell me this, if you were BYU's headcoach would you have put in a redshirt freshman just to not run up the score and loss that players redshirt year? BYU is in a tough situation since Ben Olsen transfered to UCLA. How about doing some research before making yourself look like an idiot. How about this Utah 48 USU 0, Nevada 42 USU 0, Hawaii 63 USU 10, Idaho 41 USU 21, BSU 49 USU 10, NWSU 42 USU 20, and Wyoming 37 USU 7. Maybe BYU should have put in a running back or vBYU is a heated game every time they play. For USU it is a huge rivalry and to have a little pushing after a play in a rival game is normal. Again you would know this if you did any research at all!! This part about BYU show that the writer of this article is an idiot and doesn't do his research at all. What a joke!!

As an aggie, let me be the first to admit, that absolutely no offense was taken, when Cal scored the last touchdown. Like someone already mentioned , it was a chance for a hard working player to shine on National TV.Tedford appeared to apologize to Fran when they met after the game...And Fran brushed it off as well..no apology needed.

The only person who should have apologized is Fran, for the poor preparation for that game :-)

BYU classless act? As a Ute fan this is hard to say, but I went to Logan to watch my utes kick the snot outta USU 48-0 the week before, (we were throwing on third down and blitzing until the final whistle.) BYU's touchdown pass from JASON Beck, was questionable, but to put them on the list against the likes of Mike Sanford (who also embarasses Utah as well) and Miami/FIU is a joke. Utah State also played a little dirty against the Utes too, all the shoves I saw vs the Coogs were all USU. This one, friends, is a joke.

Who designed this blog...what a joke dude. I laugh at your lack of knowledge of MWC sports. I think the beating Hawaii handed Utah State on its own field was much worse then the licking they took at LES. Hawaii was throwing TD passes with it's second string QB as well in the fourth quarter with little time, and the score was 63-14.

Yes, world, you are now aquainted with the geniuses who make up the BYU fanbase. Say anything negative about BYU, and you'll be hearing about it from Cougar fans whose whole self-images are dependent on the BYU football team. There is no bigger group of whiners in America. Of course, BYU fans would tell you they are continually getting screwed. After all, BYU never gets beaten -- they only lose when they beat themselves or they get screwed by the refs.

You picked a good classless moment for BYU. Running up the score 38-0 was pretty typical for BYU this year. But there were so moments to choose from. How did BYU running back Curtis Brown intentionally grabbing the jewels of an opposing player miss the list? How about when the BYU student section chanting "You got fired" at Utah's coach, just two days after he resigned under pressure? Yes, BYU fans have had so much to be proud of this year. How dare you question that glorious BYU tradition?

Sounds like a disgruntled ute fan whose hatred for BYU outweighs the love for their own school. Don't worry, youre not alone, you can join most of your fanbase in that.

BYU was accused of doing the same thing that you along with a handful of others did so the fans were upset because of a false accusation and we spoke up about it. Wouldn't your liberal school support something like that?

Please- I hate Spurrier but anyone voting for that over some of these other things is just voting on the name; they haven't watched the video. This is pretty over-rated. Of these 10, I'd put the Spurrier at 7th or so. (That said, he can still DIAF)

I'm no Gopher fan, but I don't think Glen Mason's thing was all that bad. He wanted to get his kicker some game experience. What's he supposed to do? Kneel it so his opponent doesn't have to face the indignity of 3 more points? Go for it on 4th down?